As negotiations between the United States and Iran enter a critical phase, a small but influential hard-liner is stepping up efforts to thwart a potential deal with the United States and reinforcing President Donald Trump’s insistence on division within the Islamic republic.
The group shares President Trump’s view that the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was a mistake, but for different reasons. The regime’s efforts to placate Iran have so far failed, as its position is highly hostile to the West, even by the standards of Iran’s conservative hardliners.
And as the Islamic Republic’s new leaders seek to unite in the face of the most serious existential threat the regime has faced, the ultra-hardliners are stepping up efforts to argue against the deal with the United States in the media, in Congress, and on the streets, arguing that only by defeating the United States can Iran secure a favorable deal.
Its members, known as “Jebhe-e-Paidari,” or the Endurance Front, are often described by observers as “super-revolutionaries,” who see them as guardians of the values of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-Western shah before imposing an authoritarian regime rooted in Shiite Islamist ideology.
“They see resistance against the United States and Israel as an eternal battle,” Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International Security Studies, told CNN. “They believe that the Shiite state must survive until the end of time, and they are very fanatical about their religious ideology.”
The group’s emergence over the past two months as one of the most vocal opponents of rapprochement with the United States offers a glimpse into the power struggles shaping post-Khamenei Iran after the former supreme leader was killed in late February on the first day of the war. The Iranian government is engaged in high-stakes peace negotiations, the outcome of which could determine which faction prevails in the Islamic Republic’s next phase.
Over the past month, Iranian officials have sought to carefully balance negotiations with Mr. Trump while appeasing powerful factions in the country’s diverse political landscape, including the Paedarists. The inclusion of members of the group in talks with U.S. negotiators in Pakistan last month suggested that Tehran was trying to demonstrate internal unity.
Still, the group has become increasingly critical of the negotiators at home, which experts say is why President Trump last month described Iran’s leadership as “cracked” and “disorganized.”
Iranian leaders, including new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, have issued statements urging unity in response to Trump’s claims, but hardliners continue to sow division, accusing negotiators of being disloyal to the Islamic Republic and of failing to follow Khamenei’s red lines in negotiations that include any discussion of Iran’s nuclear program.
Many in the group believe that even considering a deal with the United States would be a surrender in itself.
An article criticizing the talks in Raja News, which represents the Paidari Front, said: “They (the US) understood that there is no price for killing our leaders, commanders and loved ones.” “They understood that even if they martyred our Imam (Ali Khamenei), there was still a group here that was willing to negotiate, shake hands with (Steve) Witkoff, (J.D.) Vance, (Jared) Kushner, and smile at the people who murdered our martyred Imam.”
This faction is considered so extremist that even hardliners within Iran’s conservative ranks consider it fringe. Still, Cebhe-e-Paidari is embedded in some of Iran’s most influential power centers, including top Iranian media executives, top politicians who were once potential presidential candidates, and religious authorities who have exerted influence over successive leaders.
It is unclear how much support the party enjoys, but one of its most prominent figures, former national security secretary Saeed Jalili, came in second place in the 2021 election with 13 million votes.
His younger brother, Vahid Jalili, is an executive at state broadcaster IRIB.
Its members oppose negotiations with the United States due to deep religious and ideological beliefs. They accuse Iranian officials of “cowardice” for taking part in negotiations that would cause “great harm to the Iranian state” and accuse the opposition of leaking incomplete details of a potential deal to the media.
The group’s members have accused Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf of collusion and are using speeches at nightly street rallies to stir up public opinion and amplify President Trump’s insistence on division within Iran.
According to Iranian media, seven members of parliament belonging to the group refused to sign a statement supporting the negotiating team.
Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of the group’s parliament, was part of Iran’s negotiating team in Islamabad last month and later publicly declared negotiations over the country’s nuclear program a “strategic mistake.” He then demanded that Foreign Minister Abbas Aragushi be removed from the team.
“Given the US’s history of bad faith and the presence of supporters of the humiliating JCPOA[2015 nuclear deal]along with Mr. Ghalibaf in the negotiations, there is no hope for negotiations or a favorable agreement for Iran,” Nabavian wrote on Thursday X.
Following eight weeks of American and Israeli bombing that began in late February, the group has developed into an influential bloc, establishing new centers of power through massive street rallies in Tehran. Thousands of the Islamic Republic’s most ardent supporters, including members of Paidari, have been holding street rallies to put pressure on the country’s new leader.
The group’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, who died in 2021, was one of the country’s most radical clerics. He serves as a member of the Council of Experts, the body responsible for selecting the supreme leader, and heads one of Iran’s most well-funded educational institutions, whose graduates go on to head influential government institutions.
The current spiritual leader is Ayatollah Mahdi Mirbakiri, a highly influential senior cleric who was once seen as a candidate for supreme leadership. In an interview with state media in 2019, Azizi said he harbored “apocalyptic views” and wanted to hasten the end of an era by encouraging “widespread fighting” and “all-out conflict” with the West.
And as moderate Iranians grow increasingly dissatisfied with the country’s current state, with some being arrested and others choosing to emigrate, the Paidari group is tapping into a younger generation of “revolutionary” Iranians whose loyalty to the Islamic Republic has become even more uncompromising following repeated attacks by the United States and Israel.
“The Paidaris quickly took advantage of the ideologically-minded young people on the streets,” Azizi said. “They seek to portray themselves as a manifestation of the ideas introduced by (former Supreme Leader) Ali Khamenei to create a generation of young pious revolutionaries who can carry on the legacy of the Islamic Republic.”
The group’s growing profile and attempts to sow division have alarmed many in the country, and efforts to isolate the group are in full swing.
Iran’s political spectrum has long been divided, with leaders clashing over national policy and different approaches to the West. However, Mr. Jebhe-e-Paidari has become a highly divisive figure at this critical juncture, with even rival Iranian politicians uniting against him and drawing sharp criticism across Iranian media, among political commentators, and on the streets.
“It really seems to have backfired,” said Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj Media, a news site focused on Iran and the region. “They are making a lot of noise and are seen as helping Israel and the United States paint Iran as embroiled in a deep internal divide…But non-radicals are facing backlash from all directions and are becoming increasingly isolated.”
Shabani argues that hardliners are not opposed to a deal with the US, but rather want to do so in order to gain influence and reorganize power structures at home.
“They say if we continue fighting, they can force the US to surrender and dictate their terms,” Shabani said. “No one in Iran is against the deal. What matters is the tactics of how the deal is reached and by whom.”
